Goa polls: Shiv Sena rules out alliance with BJP or Congress

The party wants to have pre-poll alliance with parties like Goa Forward

Shiv Sena's Goa unit on sunday ruled out joining hands with BJP or Congress for the state Legislative Assembly polls, due before March 2017, and expressed willingness to have alliance with "parties like Goa Forward".

"Our priority is to have pre-poll alliance with parties like Goa Forward. The independent MLAs mentoring the party are taking up genuine issues of the people," Shiv Sena Goa unit chief Sudip Tamankar told reporters here.

"Sena will not have any alliance with BJP or Congress in the Assembly election as both the parties were responsible for ruining the coastal state," he added.

According to Tamankar, BJP rode to victory in 2012 Goa polls on various promises which it has failed to fulfil.

"They cheated on the issue of casino shifting from (the Mandovi) river. They (BJP) are not different from the Congress which failed to keep up the promises and on the other hand went on looting people," he alleged.

He accused the BJP-led government in Goa for being in contempt with the National Green Tribunal, which had asked the State Pollution Control Board to monitor the water quality of Mandovi river due to presence of off-shore casino vessels in it after every four months.

"The then Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar responding to a question tabled on the floor of the House by Congress MLA Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco had said that the state will adhere to NGT guidelines of checking the water quality after every four months. But they have failed to fulfil the assurance," the Sena leader claimed.

Tamankar warned that Sena will have to move to NGT with a contempt petition, if Pollution Control Board continues to ignore the order (of checking the water quality).